“He’s been out the whole time?” Joshua asked as he poured two glasses of orange juice.

Vernon looked over his shoulder at the snoring Wonwoo. “Yeah. He was pretty distraught when he got here. Said he ed up.”

Handing a glass to his cousin, Joshua looked at his friend with concern. He put the juice back in the fridge and glanced at the time. 6:31 am. He’d gotten home half an hour ago. In that time, he’d taken a shower and freshened up. Vernon was waiting for him to talk, like they did every morning. Today’s topic of conversation: is Wonwoo okay?

Joshua leaned over the counter and took a sip of his drink. “Is he okay?”

“No. But he didn’t want to talk,” Vernon replied. They kept their voices low as to not wake him. “He just put on those headphones and crashed.”

“Poor guy. Maybe he just had a bad jump.”

“No, I don’t think so. It didn’t take him that long to get here,” Vernon explained.

Joshua thought it over before letting out a deep sigh. He’d always been concerned about Wonwoo, but that was probably just his brotherly intuitions talking. Growing up, he’d acted like a hyung to Vernon, even though they both took care of each other pretty evenly. But Joshua knew that Wonwoo had always battled with being a Jumper, sometimes more than at other times. Maybe he was just in another lull, at least that’s what Joshua hoped.

Making his way around the counter, he stood over his friend, a friend he only saw every so often if he was lucky. As of that moment, they had about 6 hours left with each other. Joshua wanted to make the most of them. Carefully, he squatted down and pried the headphones off of Wonwoo. The boy immediately shook, his eyes trying to stay shut as he sat up. “Wah, what?” he grumbled.

Joshua smiled. “Morning.”

Wonwoo groaned and rolled deeper into the couch. “It’s not morning where I’m from.”

“Well you’re in my house now,” Joshua declared as he shoved the boy’s shoulder. “Get up! Vernon says you’ve been sleeping since you got here. That’s no way to act when you’re in LA!”

Wonwoo could hear Vernon chuckle from across the room, but he refused to comply. “I don’t want to be in LA.”

“Too bad! Cause you’re here!” Joshua exclaimed, this time throwing his entire body on his friend. Wonwoo grunted from the impact. He tried to fight back, but it was no use. Joshua grabbed him by the arms and shook him. “The universe wants you to be here!”

Wonwoo finally stopped resisting and just submitted. He sat up and glared at his friend on his lap. “Don’t even talk to me about the universe.”

Joshua laughed and got up, patting Wonwoo’s thigh as he walked away. Taking the stool next to his cousin, he said, “Come on. Whatever the universe did to you this time, Vernon and I can cheer you up.”

Smiling, Vernon added, “Yeah. Screw the universe. At least it got you here with us.”

As upset as he was, Wonwoo couldn’t help but grin at his friends’ kindness. Even though they only got to see each other once in awhile, Joshua and Vernon acted like it was just yesterday when they last hung out. Wonwoo appreciated that. Stretching out his arms, he stood up and yawned. “Thanks guys, but honestly I’m...just not in the best place right now.”

“Uhh, correction,” Vernon said, raising a finger. “You are in the best place right now. Casa de Joshua and Vernon is the best place you could possibly be in the entire world.”

Joshua laughed, but Wonwoo only weakly smiled. “Hansol, I appreciate it, I really do,” Wonwoo replied, “but honestly, there’s nothing that could cheer me up right now.” His mind was still racing with Mingyu. All night, even in his sleep, he couldn’t distract his thoughts for more than a few seconds. They always flowed back to the boy who flat out said he wanted nothing to do with him.

“I doubt that,” Joshua argued.

“No, seriously, I’m—”

“Two words,” Joshua interrupted, holding up two fingers. “American. Breakfast.”

Wonwoo stared. He didn’t say anything. He just had a blank look on his face. Joshua and Vernon watched as he walked over to where the car keys were kept on the wall. He took Joshua’s set off and tossed them to him. “Let’s go.”

Catching them, Joshua chuckled. Wonwoo was already heading out the door as the other two followed him. Vernon laughed and grabbed his jacket off the chair. Joshua smiled back at his cousin with a smug look on his face. “Works every time.”

— — —

“Yes, I’ll have a stack of waffles and some hash brown,” Vernon said. He pointed across the table at Wonwoo. “And he’ll have the blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon.” He grinned and handed his menu to the waitress. “Lots of bacon.”

She nodded and smiled. “Alright. It’ll all be out soon.”

They thanked her as she walked away. Wonwoo raised an eyebrow at his friends. “I can order for myself, ya know. My English isn’t that terrible.”

“You’re our guest,” Joshua insisted. “We’ll take care of you.”

Sitting on the inside of the booth next to him, Wonwoo cracked a small smile. “So how was Taipei?”

Joshua took a sip of his water and cleared his throat. “It was fine. Ya know, the typical. Thankfully girls there love a guy with a guitar.” Wonwoo and Vernon both giggled.

For Jumpers, being in a different city every night required some sort of survival skills. Everyone had their own technique or routine when it came to making it through those twelve hours. Joshua realized early on that the best way for him was to utilize some of his best traits: his guitar and his pretty face. Joshua never jumped without his guitar strapped to his back. Wherever he went, he would stand on a street corner for a few hours just singing to the people who passed by. Eventually, he’d find a girl who wanted a more private concert. Now anyone who knew Joshua would know that he was a boy of morals. So whenever he went home with someone, he never made any moves or did anything too risque. The furthest he ever went was a kiss on the cheek. He’d just sing to them until they fell asleep, which then let him go to sleep. It was his super power. If he was lucky, he’d be set with food and company for those remaining hours.

His friends always about it since it seemed so out of his character, but that’s how he made it through. Joshua and Vernon lived alone in LA and didn’t have much money, so he couldn’t afford to spend too much during his jumps. This was his best option, and he learned to live with it. It wasn’t awful. Sometimes it was a lot of fun. He’d met some really nice girls. But on those unlucky trips when no one was interested, he’d spend whatever loose change people tossed into his cup on a snack before finding a safe place to rest.

Wonwoo shook his head. “I seriously don’t know how you do it.”

“We all do what we have to, alright,” Joshua joked back. “But enough about me…” He clutched his friend’s shoulder. “What’s going on with you?”

Wonwoo sighed and stared down as he poured sugar into his coffee. “Just a lot of crap.”

“We’ve all been there,” Vernon commented.

With a groan, Wonwoo leaned over the table. “Yeah, but this time it’s just a ton of crap.”

“A ton of crap,” Joshua repeated. “Yeah, that’s not what you want.”

“I really screwed up guys.”

The two waited for him to go on. When he didn’t, Vernon gently added, “Maybe we can help.”

That made Wonwoo chuckle. “You guys are literally thousands of miles away from all of my problems. I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can.”

Joshua felt bad that that was true, but still. “Tell us what’s going on. Then, maybe we can see if we can help.”

Taking a sip, Wonwoo leaned back into the cushion. He let Mingyu flash in his mind a few more times before he started. “Okay. Well, it’s this guy I met.”

“Okay,” Vernon said, encouragingly.

“I met him a few days ago when I was running from Jihoon and Soonyoung, ya know the reporters. Yeah, I took his jacket and hat and…” Wonwoo took a breath as he recalled Mingyu’s confused face, that cute, unknowing face. “...and he was really cute.”

Joshua and Vernon smiled at each other as Wonwoo played with the rim of his mug. They listened as he went on. “So yeah, I did the usual thing to try and hide and I ended up taking his phone by accident and he had mine. So, I called him and we met up and I got my phone back.

“Ya know, that should’ve been the end of everything, but I...guess I started liking him after we went to lunch.” Dully twirling the spoon in his coffee, Wonwoo groaned. “Ugh, he was just so cute! I mean...we got along. He was easy to talk to. I don’t know…” He sighed and slammed his face into the table. “He loves cats.”

Joshua chuckled and rubbed his back consolingly. “Aww, Wonwoo. You’re all wound up because of a boy?”

Wonwoo groaned again and looked up, letting his chin rest on the edge. Pouting, he added, “A boy who loves cats.”

Vernon laughed and leaned over to ruffle Wonwoo’s hair. “Dude, did you ask him out or something?”

“Not exactly,” Wonwoo sighed as he sat back up.

“What does that mean?” Joshua asked.

“It means...I told him I was a Jumper that hates to jump and needs a reason to not jump.” There was a pause as Vernon and Joshua stared at him with wide eyes. “And...I basically implied that he could be that reason.”

There was another drawn out pause as the other two looked at him with their jaws dropped.

“Alright, who ordered the blueberry pancakes?!”

The three of them immediately turned their heads to find the smiling waitress standing there with their food.

“That’s mine,” Wonwoo replied, trying to reduce his accent. He then pointed to Vernon and Joshua. “Waffles. Other pancakes.”

The waitress nodded and put down their plates. With Wonwoo’s order came a plate piled high with bacon. “Thank you,” they all said together.

“Enjoy guys,” she said with a grin and walked off.

When she was gone, the silence returned. Neither of his friends knew how to react, so Joshua said what anyone would.

“What?”

“I—”

“You what?” Vernon added.

“I—”

“Wonwoo!” Joshua couldn’t hold back from screaming. “Are you crazy?!”

Wonwoo groaned and leaned his head back. “Maybe I am!” There was another pause as they watched their friend struggle. Closing his eyes, he took his hands and gripped around his neck. Letting out a long breath, he repeated, “Maybe I am.”

Vernon looked over at Joshua and saw the same worry on his face. No one talks about being a Jumper, and if you do, it’s only to the people you trust with your life. Taking a second, Vernon hesitated. He looked to Wonwoo. “You told him you were a Jumper.”

Wonwoo slowly nodded. Joshua stared and didn’t know how to react. “Then what happened?”

“Then he freaked out,” Wonwoo explained as he opened his eyes to look out the window. He could see Mingyu’s angry face. “He got really mad. Well, he was fine at first. At first, he was listening and being really understanding and everything.” He sighed. “It wasn’t until I brought up how to stop jumping did he flip. He got so mad, said I was making everything up to get to him. It was just...so fast.”

Joshua followed Wonwoo’s gaze to nowhere. He could feel the panic build, but he realized his worry was coming from what this person could do with this information. It took him a second to see why his friend was really upset. “Did he turn you down?”

“I guess I never really asked him out,” Wonwoo said. “But yeah, he turned me down. He said he wants nothing to do with me.”

Vernon could see the distraught written all over Wonwoo’s face. “Have you talked to him since?”

“I jumped right after he left. Then I was with you.”

Joshua looked down at Wonwoo’s stack of pancakes and realized an American breakfast wasn’t going to fix this. But it was a start. He pushed the plate a little. “Eat.”

Wonwoo looked over at him, confused. “What?”

He nudged his head upward. “Eat. You were right, I don’t think we can really help you with this one.” Wonwoo felt a pang in his chest. He wished he wasn’t right. “But we can still try, and first thing’s first. You always feel better when you eat.”

Vernon chuckled. “You don’t get pancakes like those in Korea.”

Wonwoo blinked a few times before breaking a smile. He laughed into his chest and looked down at his food. It looked delicious. The others watched him as he poured the syrup, got a knife and fork, a utensil he had to learn to get used to, and ate his first bite. He couldn’t help but grin. He looked up at both of them. “Thanks guys.”

“No problem,” Joshua replied.

Vernon rubbed his hands together and stuck his tongue out. “Let’s eat!”

As they all dug in, the mood lightened once again. The conversation diverged from Wonwoo’s problems for a little while to let everything sit. They talked about what they’d been up to. Vernon discussed life in his final year of high school and how he really needed to get into UCLA so he could still live with Joshua. Joshua talked about how the Taiwanese girl from last night really liked Maroon 5 songs. Wonwoo mostly listened. He was just glad to have people around. Good people.

Finally, they were down to just a giant plate of bacon. It was at that point Joshua decided they could talk about the serious stuff again. Chewing away, he asked, “So, you really like this guy?”

Wonwoo put down his coffee and nodded. “Yeah.”

“How did the Jumper thing even come up?” Vernon asked.

“I told him I traveled a lot and he asked me something about my parents. I don’t know,” Wonwoo struggled to remember the details. “I guess it was more me wanting to tell him.”

Joshua was still uneasy with that detail, but he trusted Wonwoo’s judgment. “Why’d you want to tell him?”

“I don’t know,” Wonwoo said again. “Something about him...felt right. I mean, I’ve never told ANYONE about...this.” He groaned and took a piece of bacon. “I guess it was impulse. I don’t know. There’s something about him…”

Vernon waited to make sure he was done. “Are you just worried about what to do next?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Wonwoo thought it over. “I don’t know guys. He was just so upset. Like he was disgusted. Like the second I suggested that we could be something more, he hated me.”

“I doubt he hates you,” Joshua commented.

“No, you should’ve seen his face when he stormed out.” Wonwoo’s chest stung as he thought about it.

“So you think he won’t talk to you anymore?” Vernon questioned.

“I don’t think he ever wants to see me again.”

“I doubt it.”

Surprised, Wonwoo turned to Joshua. “What? You think he will? After all of that, you think he’d want to see me again?”

Joshua nodded. “I bet you anything he’s into you too.”

“You’d lose that bet.”

“No, hear me out,” Joshua defended his argument. “He was probably just in shock. I mean, if…” Joshua paused and tilted his head. “What did you say his name was?”

Wonwoo realized he hadn’t mentioned that. “Mingyu.”

“Mingyu,” Joshua repeated. “Okay, if Mingyu and you really clicked like you said, then he feels it too. He has to. He’s probably just really surprised at all of this. Wonwoo, think about it. All this Jumper stuff, it’s A LOT to take in.”

Wonwoo scrunched his nose. “Yeah, it is.” He couldn’t imagine someone breaking news like that to him.

“I think you’re worrying a little early,” Joshua continued. “It’s all too fresh to think about too deeply.”

Vernon nodded in agreement. “He’s right. You and Mingyu weren’t even together and you kind of dropped a really big bombshell on him.” He reached for another piece. “Talk to him when you get back. Or maybe wait a few days. He’ll give you a chance to talk more.”

Wonwoo thought over the advice. They’re right. Nothing’s even happened yet, right? Mingyu and I...nothing’s over. Nothing’s even started.

“Nothing’s even started,” he said aloud.

Vernon smiled and shot him a handgun. “Exactly.”

“Give it some time,” Joshua said. “And if you jump here again and things have gotten worse, then we’ll talk even more.”

Wonwoo scoffed. “I really hope that doesn’t happen.” But still, he smiled. “But thanks guys. I really needed this.”

“We’re here for you,” Vernon declared. “LA is your home away from home. We are your family away from family.”

Wonwoo grinned and was about to thank them, but was interrupted. “Dibs on being his grandma!” Joshua exclaimed.

“Hey!” Vernon complained. “I wanted to be his grandma!”

“Too bad! I called it!”

“You can’t just call it!”

“Of course I can!”

Laughing and shaking his head, Wonwoo was glad to have this family, always waiting for him on the other side of the world.

— — —

“What’ll it be today, boys?” the cashier asked.

Seokmin smiled and pulled out his wallet. “Just the usual.”

“Alright, so a red bean, milk tea boba, a green milk tea boba, and an ice coffee?” she asked to make sure.

With a nod, Seokmin confirmed. “That’s it.”

Just behind him, Mingyu sighed and looked down at his watch. 12:04pm. According to what he said, he’s been home for six hours. Immediately catching his thoughts, Mingyu shook himself. Ew, no. Why do I even care?

Seungcheol noticed his uneasiness. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“What?” Mingyu uttered, caught off guard. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine.”

Seungcheol squinted at him. Ever since yesterday evening, Seungcheol noticed something off about Mingyu. He found him just staring at the ceiling when he got home. Mingyu insisted nothing was wrong, but it definitely didn’t seem that way.

Mingyu could tell Seungcheol didn’t believe him, so he smiled. Mingyu lead the two of them to a table as Seokmin paid. “Hyung, you worry about me way too much.”

Seungcheol wasn’t buying it. “You make me worry about you.”

Mingyu rolled his eyes as he sat down in their usual booth in the front at 10/10, their favorite cafe in town. It was near the university, so there were usually a lot of college kids hanging around. That was the only thing that Mingyu didn’t like about this place. Thankfully, today was a slower day.

“I’m fine,” Mingyu said for the fifth time that day as Seungcheol sat across from him. “I don’t know why you keep thinking I’m not.” He’s kinda right though.

“It’s cause I’m usually right,” Seungcheol argued. “But, okay friend, whatever you say.”

Chuckling, Mingyu looked up as Seokmin slid in to sit next to him. “What’re we talking about?” he asked.

“Mingyu’s lack of any problems.”

Mingyu smiled slightly. “Seriously, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Seungcheol’s usually right when he says you’re not.”

Groaning, Mingyu sunk into the booth. “You guys. What would my problems even be about?”

“Wonwoo,” both of them said together.

That threw Mingyu off. Was it that obvious? He sat back up. “What would make you think that?”

Seungcheol shrugged and leaned over the table. “You haven’t talked about your date yes—”

“It wasn’t a date,” he interjected.

“Either way, you haven’t talked about him since,” Seungcheol explained. “It has to be about him.”

And he’s right.

As much as he hated himself for it, Mingyu couldn’t wipe Wonwoo out of his head. All he could think about all night was if what the boy said was true. Were Jumpers real? It sounded so stupid and so ridiculous. They can’t be, Mingyu told himself. But he thought of how Wonwoo didn’t chase after him when he stormed out. As he was leaving, he’d checked his watch. It was 6:00pm by the time he had reached the elevator. That would make sense. But still, that one consistency doesn’t make up for the fact that it was all crazy.

But there were other factors. His call from London. Him taking his jacket. The reporters always following him. It even made sense that Wonwoo had to run home just before 6 o’clock that other time. Mingyu had to admit that those things all lined up. But still. A Jumper? It seemed impossible, but that wasn’t all Mingyu was talking about.

Jumper or not, Wonwoo definitely implied that he wanted something more from Mingyu. He couldn’t shake that. A shiver ran down his spine every time he thought about it. It disgusted him that such a great person would insinuate something so not great. If Wonwoo wanted more of a relationship from Mingyu, then Mingyu wanted nothing to do with him.

But the worst thought of all that was racing through Mingyu’s head...actually, it was more of a feeling than a thought. It was the pain in his chest when he thought about not seeing Wonwoo. It was the ache in his body from leaving Wonwoo like that. It was the strain in his throat from thinking about that kid. Mingyu had no idea what was happening. It was almost as if he missed Wonwoo after screaming at him and storming out. This is so ing stupid.

Mingyu hated every second of it, but he didn’t want to let anyone else know he was feeling this way. And anyhow, if Seungcheol and Seokmin knew his thoughts, it’s not like they could help him. How could they without knowing Wonwoo was a Jumper? Even if Mingyu didn’t fully believe it, he realized that the one thing he would do for sure was keep Wonwoo’s life secret. There was no point in telling anyone.

Breaking eye contact with his friend, Mingyu turned to look out the window. There were no cats hanging out outside. He had a few friends that were regulars outside the cafe, but they weren’t there today. “It’s not about Wonwoo,” he lied. “Cause it’s nothing at all. You’re just delirious.”

Seungcheol glanced over at Seokmin. He wasn’t buying it either, but they both decided to let it go...for now. “Okay,” Seungcheol submitted. “If you need to talk though…”

“We’re here,” Seokmin finished.

Mingyu rolled his eyes. “Thanks guys.”

They both smiled. “So,” Seungcheol started, “if it’s not about Wonwoo, can we ask how yesterday went?”

Mingyu’s face dropped. Seungcheol was right. If it wasn’t about Wonwoo, than he had no excuse to not talk about their meeting. He realized he’d have to lie about that too. “It went well,” he tried to say a little enthusiastically. “Yeah, we just ate at his place. Talked a lot.”

Seokmin eagerly asked, “Did you find out if he’s a spy? Was I right?”

I wish you were. “No, I didn’t find out,” Mingyu chuckled softly. “He’s just…” No words were coming to mind. “...jumpy.”

“Jumpy?”

What the . Out of all the adjectives in the world… Trying to recover, Mingyu added, “Yeah. He’s...spontaneous. He travels a lot. Jumps all over the world.”

“That’s cool,” Seokmin said.

Just then, there was a call from the counter. “Seokmin! Order for Seokmin!”

“I still bet he’s a spy,” Seokmin threw in as he got back up to get their drinks.

Seungcheol laughed as Seokmin walked over to the counter where their three drinks were waiting on a tray. Grabbing a few napkins and holding them under his arm, he smiled at the barista. “Thank you.”

She nodded back as he quickly turned to head back to the table. Unfortunately, Seokmin didn’t really look where he was going. “Oh my god!” he shouted as he rammed into the blonde boy who was walking by. Two of the drinks immediately flew off the tray.

Thankfully, the stranger had fast reflexes. He quickly caught the cups mid-air in both hands and stood back up straight. “Woah!” he exclaimed. There was a pleased smile on his face. “I’m so sorry! That was close!”

Shocked and impressed, Seokmin’s mouth hung open as the boy put the drinks back. “No, that was my fault! But that was really impressive.”

The stranger laughed. “Thanks. Sorry again.”

It wasn’t until now did Seokmin look up to see the boy’s face. The first things he noticed were his adorably, slanty eyes. Seokmin smiled. “Thank you for catching those.”

“No problem,” he replied. With one last grin, the stranger walked away towards the other end of the cafe. Seokmin took a second to watch him walk away before going back to their booth.

When he came back, Seokmin found Seungcheol snickering. “Really smooth man.”

“Yeah, I know,” he laughed. They were all very used to each other’s teasing.

But Mingyu wasn’t paying attention. He was still looking back at the boy who Seokmin ran into. Mingyu only got to see the back of his head, but there was something awfully familiar about his hair. Once he couldn’t place who that was, he let it go and turned his attention back to his friends.

Seokmin distributed the drinks: red bean for Seungcheol, green for himself, and coffee for Mingyu. For the next while, the three of them just hung out like usual. But today, Mingyu was quieter. He was still flooded with all of these thoughts of Wonwoo. To try and distract himself, he would focus more on what his friends were saying about their classes or their classmates or whatever it was they were talking about. Either that or he would try to listen to whatever song was playing in the cafe.

Seungcheol was saying, “Yeah, haven’t gotten a chance to see Mrs. Do lately…”

Say the name...SEVENTEEEEN YEP!

“...I really need to pick up my old assignments from her. Some of the…”

...kkaego naseon maebeon say I’m so stupid…

“...I didn’t realize stuff that the second year literature class is doing is the same so…”

...eotteokha a meori soge gadeuk…

“...It’s a really dumb class. We honestly do nothing all day and…”

...S. Coups let’s go! Alssongdalssong nunbiche jjeoljeolmae mal hamadi geonnegiga wae himi deumnikka…

“...Oh no, that guy’s really annoying. He got even worse since I last talked to him. All he does is…”

...jamkkan sonyeoya joldae neon dareun saramege nokijma naega jiltu najanha...

Pretty good.

“I’m sorry,” Mingyu finally interrupted. Seungcheol and Seokmin both looked over at him. He pointed to the ceiling and furrowed his eyebrows. “Do you guys know what song this is?”

They both listened for a second before Seokmin smiled. “Mansae!” he shouted.

“What?” Mingyu immediately uttered.

Seungcheol chuckled. “Mansae. By that new group Seventeen.”

Mingyu held his breath and nodded. Of course it is.

— — —

“He’s at the library,” Jihoon said through the phone. “Did you find Mingyu?”

Soonyoung looked across the cafe from the far back corner. He was scared that he’d drawn too much attention to himself earlier, but thankfully he went unnoticed. He could see the back of Mingyu’s head, next to the guy he ran into. “Yeah. He’s at 10/10.”

“Anything interesting?”

“I had to move further away. They did talk about Wonwoo, though.”

“What’d they say?”

Soonyoung turned back to his laptop and scrolled through what he’d written down. “So one of his friend’s thinks he’s dealing with something, but he says he’s fine. The friend thinks his problem is with Wonwoo, but Mingyu denies it.”

“Why would they say that?”

“Well, his friend, I don’t know this one’s name. One’s Seokmin, but this guy I don’t know.”

“His name doesn’t matter right now,” Jihoon insisted.

Soonyoung agreed. “Yeah, for now, we’ll just call him…” Thinking for a second, he listened to the music playing overhead.

...S. Coups let’s go!...

“Coups. We’ll call him that.”

He could almost hear Jihoon roll his eyes on the other side of the phone. “Fine. What did ‘Coups’ say?”

“Coups said that Mingyu and Wonwoo went out yesterday.”

“Really? On like a date?”

“Coups called it a date, but Mingyu denied that too. He seemed a little uneasy.” Soonyoung read over his transcript of their conversation. “Seokmin thinks he’s a spy.”

“We ruled that out awhile ago.”

“I know,” Soonyoung added, looking back over his shoulder. He could see Seokmin’s head bobbing from him laughing. Soonyoung cracked a small smile. “This Seokmin seems a little eccentric.”

“Focus, Soonyoung!” Jihoon exclaimed, but with a subtle laugh. Even when they were on the job, he managed to let his best friend get to him. “Mingyu. That’s who we need.”

“He didn’t say too much about Wonwoo,” Soonyoung went on. “All he said was that Wonwoo’s ‘jumpy.’”

“Jumpy?”

“Yeah, that he travels a lot and jumps all over the world,” Soonyoung explained. “That’s new.”

“Huh.” Jihoon was clearly thinking about something.

“What?”

“It’s just funny how he lied to me is all,” Jihoon said. “He said he didn’t know Wonwoo.”

“Well, he clearly does. Maybe more than we do. This is the first time I’ve heard someone talk about him traveling.”

“Right.”

“Do you think he lied to this kid? Ya know, to impress him or whatever? When would he ever travel? All I remember is his parents traveled a lot.”

Jihoon thought it over. “Something tells me he’s telling the truth.”

“Interesting.”

There was a pause as both of them just went through this new information. After years of following this suspicious character, this was one of their bigger breakthroughs. Since Wonwoo didn’t really have any friends, no one talked about him. It was hard to collect information, but Jihoon and Soonyoung definitely had their reasons for following him. What person doesn’t leave their house after 6pm?

Soonyoung sighed and took a sip of his coffee. “What’s Wonwoo up to?” he finally asked.

“He’s just sitting in the library. I don’t know why he’s here though.”

Soonyoung furrowed his eyebrows. “Yeah, he never goes there.”

“I don’t know. He looks pretty tired, though. Kind of upset even.”

“Did he see you?”

Jihoon took a second. “I don’t think so. He would’ve left.”

“Interesting.”

“I’m just gonna stay a little longer. Our lunch break ends in like 15 minutes. I’ll meet you back at the office soon.”

“Yeah. Do you want me to get you a drink or anything?”

“Nah, I’m okay. Thanks.”

“I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

Both of them hung up and Soonyoung rested his phone on the table. Carefully, he looked back one more time. He could see the one he named Coups laughing and Seokmin bending his head to sip his drink. Mingyu was slightly hunched over the table, leaning on one arm. He wished he could see his face. He thought about going up to him and asking him some casual questions. It wasn’t like Mingyu had ever seen him before. It would be pretty normal.

But he decided against it. It would be suspicious if Mingyu noticed him after that. Staying far from Mingyu and his friend with the gorgeous smile was the best approach. That’s how Soonyoung justified it. It had nothing to do with how he felt a bit nervous thinking about Seokmin. No, Soonyoung thought to himself. Nothing to do with that at all.

I didn't get a chance to write a little note down here when I uploaded and now I'm on my phone so it looks weird but I'll change it later xD hope you guys like the story so far! Your comments are always so sweet honestly thank you for the support and yes more to come!